TV Journalist in the best news town on the planet🌎 Host of "This Week in South Florida" Sundays 11:30. AM=Coffee, PM=Red Wine🍷& game for anything in between
Thanks to 80-year old Maria, who discovered her political party switched from Democrat to Republican without her consent, we get our first look at the voter registration worker who knocked at her door.
So we went to *her* door ….
Our report tonight
@WPLGLocal10
⏩
👀 October surprise 👀
Whoa - Former Republican Party of Florida Chair Al Cardenas is endorsing Democrat Annette Taddeo in the race for Miami-Dade Congress D27... one of the most watched in the nation.
He announced it at this gathering👇🏼 ⏩
@WPLGLocal10
⏩
#Florida
Cong. Matt Gaetz is now tied to shill candidate in a state senate election. This thread shows how *that* ghost candidate is directly connected to two So Fla shills we busted last Nov.
It’s in the money trail that led to Frank Artiles arrest.
Here we go:
@WPLGLocal10
Last Nov, Florida Republican voter registration surpassed Democrats by @ 4,000 votes.
Included in that- >5,000 Miami Dade Democrats recorded as “switched”.
Now more senior voters are telling us- they didn’t know their party affiliations changed.
Our report tonight
@WPLGLocal10
⏩
🚨Breaking: search warrant raid right now at home of resigned
#Florida
Sen. Frank Artiles re shill candidate he planted, Alex Rodriguez.
re: scheme to dupe voters/manipulate a Nov 2020 FL senate election.
Much to come...
@WPLGLocal10
Background⏩
I just looked this up to respond to a viewer email…
And it appears Rush Limbaugh does not qualify for a flag lowering honor under
#Florida
state protocols:
🚨🚨Coming for arrest right now🚨🚨
Ex-
#Florida
Sen. Frank Artiles (in lawyer’s car) for planting & funding a fake candidate, manipulating Nov2020 elections
*illegal campaign $$$
*conspiring to do it
*False swearing-in
First stop:
#Miami
Dade Co. jail
More coming
@WPLGLocal10
Hello from South Dade Landfill, where $millions in brand-new medical ventilators were dumped & destroyed.... infuriating some who know the need for the most serious
#covid19
patients.
It’s here On video (*salty language alert*). Also, threading what we’ve learned
@WPLGLocal10
⏩
Florida prosecutors announced Thursday that they are dropping a misdemeanor charge against Patriots owner Robert Kraft after a court blocked their use of video that allegedly shows him paying for sex at a Jupiter spa in early 2019.
Back to
#Florida
Cong. Matt Gaetz, whom NYT connects to D9 shill candidate Jestine Iannotti...
Shill “schemes” are not illegal in
#Florida
; illegal campaign funding is.
That’s how
#Miami
SAO charged Artiles & Rodriguez.
No indication Central FL SAOs are on the case.
@WPLGLocal10
All 3 filed as no-party-affiliation, did no campaigning, no fundraising, nothing. And yet they were backed by two Political Action Committees: “Our Florida” and “The Truth”. Both PACS were created the same day, Oct. 2nd - a month before the election.
And that’s just the start..
The three shill candidates planted in three
#Florida
state senate races last November are:
Celso Alfonso (in D39
#MiamiDade
), Alex Rodriguez (in D37
#Miami
Dade), Jestine Iannotti (D9 Central FL - no pic) ....
@WPLGLocal10
Here are the flyers they printed: identical in graphics but for the shill candidates’ names.
They were mailed to the respective districts’ voters to make the shills appeal to Democrats, to siphon votes from the real Dems in the race (all of whom lost).
@WPLGLocal10
Evidence coming out in boxes from Frank Artiles ‘s house... The warrant includes computer(s), his cell phone, a safe inside the house....They are looking for evidence of communications & financing of plant candidate Alex Rodriguez.
@WPLGLocal10
Both PACs have only 1 contribution & only 1 expenditure.
And they’re identical.
The only contributor (10/3, a day after opening): “Proclivity”, which suddenly changed in Florida campaign records to “Grow United”. Both are untraceable co’s registered in Delaware...
@WPLGLocal10
🚨Breaking
Evidence the voter ID switches we’ve been reporting in Miami-Dade are Florida -wide, per
@Annette_Taddeo
.
The pattern holds: lifelong Democrats claim their political party IDs were flipped to Republican after visits by paid canvassers.
Background👇🏼
@WPLGLocal10
Thanks to 80-year old Maria, who discovered her political party switched from Democrat to Republican without her consent, we get our first look at the voter registration worker who knocked at her door.
So we went to *her* door ….
Our report tonight
@WPLGLocal10
⏩
Two days later, 10/5, both PACs made what would be their only expenditure - all the money, $550K - to the same Clermont, FL printing company “Advance Impressions”.
It’s owners are from Miami: the mom & stepdad of a GOP strategist tied to both PACs.
The product?..:
@WPLGLocal10
... Notice $370,000 went to “Our Florida” PAC, supporting the two South Florida shill candidates, Rodriguez & Alfonso.
$180,000 went to “The Truth” PAC, supporting one Central Florida shill candidate, Iannotti.
@WPLGLocal10
Meet “Shake” – the hero who saved two elderly men being robbed at the Wells Fargo in Northwest Dade. Plus, he got the bad guy... Amazing story he tells! Listen:
@WPLGLocal10
Charlie Crist has always been the kinder, gentler candidate.
So when he answered my question about Gov. Ron DeSantis supporters like this👇🏼, he telegraphed something different ahead in the race for Florida Governor ⏩
@WPLGLocal10
A former Florida voter registration worker says she watched colleagues change unwitting Florida voters’ party affiliations from Democrat to Republican.
She’s taking her allegations to prosecutors this week.
Listen to her account in our wrap tonight
@WPLGLocal10
⏩
His car drive right past the jail entrance when he saw our camera. But eventually, they had to U-turn and come back.
Here’s the seriously quick right through
@WPLGLocal10
:
Shift change … search & rescue teams coming off a 12hr shift from the mountain of debris & remains at the Surfside building collapse.
The toll shows on their faces…
They tell families today, infrared cameras show “voids” large enough to possibly hold survivors
@WPLGLocal10
In our live report, you can see residents’ exposed belongings & furniture in apartments suddenly torn apart As the building collapsed.
Just after, I received this message👇🏼💔
“…grandmother is a registered Democrat; we did not understand how her political registration was changed..”
The new voter ID card👇🏼 arrived as a shock to the 84-yo Miami voter, a lifelong Democrat. Who changed her party affiliation?
Our report
@WPLGLocal10
Just in -
Re - US Dept of Justice plans to monitor a list of polling places, including Miami Dade, Broward & Palm Beach Co’s:
This response from Florida state election law team👇🏼
@WPLGLocal10
2/ The stamp on the crate shows the ventilator manufacturer is a 35yr old company in Beijing: Aerospace Changfeng Ltd.
The shipment likely came through US Customs last May.
@WPLGLocal10
4/ A Doral-based customs broker shepherded the shipment of ventilators through US Customs in
#Miami
.
The same company brought the shipment to the dump last afternoon on April 14th.
The VP there says he isn’t authorized to make the importer’s information public...
@WPLGLocal10
7/ Medical equipment ie ventilators without approval - emergency use or otherwise - are not legal to use.
Options:
1) take them out of the country
2) trash them
Guess which is far less costly to do ...
Anyone with info on the importer? DMs are open!
@WPLGLocal10
3/The model number, ACM812A, indicates it’s an anesthesia ventilator. We found this broker’s listing👇🏼selling it for $26,000 US last spring, when ventilators were in shortt supply for an exploding number of
#covid19
patients.
@WPLGLocal10
From Alex Rodriguez‘s attorney... arrest warrant shows he (the shill candidate) has been spilling the beans on Frank Artiles since the day police brought him in for questioning.
@WPLGLocal10
6/ This is the FDA’s list of ventilators approved for emergency authorized use. There are 86 models. The Beijing Aerospace ChangFeng Ltd ACM812A is not listed among them:
@WPLGLocal10
5/ A year ago March, as the nationwide scramble for ventilators ramped up, the FDA gave Emergency Use Authorization that allowed certain ventilator models to be repurposed for
#covid19
patients ...
@WPLGLocal10
South
#Florida
#covid
infections ⬆️500% in the last month.
Hospitalizations ⬆️300%
Who are the patients in the beds?
Eye-opening response from Dr. Robert Goldszer, Chief Medical Officer at Mount Sinai Medical Center on “This Week in South Florida” ⏩
#TWISF
#ICYMI
@WPLGLocal10
The rest of the story…
The hand gesture👇🏼that got a
#Miami
police officer relieved of duty & an internal investigation into whether he flashed “white power”.
Our wrap tonight
@WPLGLocal10
#OneAndOnly
⏩
Here’s the indictment, signed last Thu 4/15...
outlines a charge that Superintendent Robert Runcie lied to the Florida Grand Jury about safety measures planned & funded in the wake of MSD murders.
School Board atty Barbara Myrick also charged with disclosing
GJ info
@WPLGLocal10
🚨Another twist to the money trail for the shill
#Florida
senate candidates:
Mystery company “Proclivity”, sole donor to 2 PACS funding the shills, vanished from campaign-finance records.
Now “Grow United, Inc” is the contributor.
(Good thing we kept screen shots)
@WPLGLocal10
..
But wait! There’s more! Senate candidate Alex Rodriguez not only lied on his candidate filings, he lied to us! Thanks to a tip tonight, we learn the guy in our report who claimed to be a business partner is, yes ...
Alex Rodriguez!
Update
@WPLGLocal10
11pm
Hello from the
#COVID19
testing line in Sunny Isles Beach, where I had an 11:30 appt. & I am now on the 2nd line of the process.
And thinking - why…
A thread 👇🏼
@WPLGLocal10
Watching video of today’s waterspout tornado off Aventura gets to next-level here, with someone’s Jewish grandparents doing play-by-play ⏩
@WPLGLocal10
🌪😂
Happening now
A statewide student walk-out becomes a walk-in at the Florida Capitol … high school students protesting the Parents Rights in Education Bill aka “Don’t Say Gay”
(Status: passed the House, Senate likely next week)
@WPLGLocal10
#Tallahassee
At this teachers conf, a Florida Dept of Education rep for the first time attempts to - explain? defend? clarify? - new African American History lessons that say enslaved people could “benefit” from skills.
We were there by chance. No one has responded to our calls.
@WPLGLocal10
Updating here: We’ve been able to uncover some of the people, connections & money behind the apparent shill candidates in South
#Florida
state senate races (& a 3rd in central fl) .
Our broadcast tonight ⏩
@WPLGLocal10
🚨
#Florida
Education Commish just sent Broward School Board Chr & Superintendent THE letter👇🏼
-opens “investigation of noncompliance” because of mask mandate
-demands response by end of day Friday that documents compliance or
-expect financial sanctions
@WPLGLocal10
Now - Gov. DeSantis 10:15 covid press conference is stalled - as aides face off with community members there. Ben Frazier - head of Northside Coalition of Jacksonville - taken into custody for trespassing ⏩
@WPLGLocal10
Preview of our 6pm report
@WPLGLocal10
:
#Florida
senate candidates in
#Miami
Dade who did no campaigning, no fundraising - who have dark money connections.
Were they planted? to syphon votes from Democratic candidates?
A sample⏩
Wall of the Missing
created by a friend of some unaccounted for in the Surfside condo collapse, outside the search & rescue task force tent
@WPLGLocal10
🚨Nantucket alerted to possible Florida-sponsored migrant flight there Tuesday. Airport flagged a scheduled flight as having "many similarities" to the surprise flight that brought Venezuelans to Martha's Vineyard last month.
The town posted this public notice👇🏼
@WPLGLocal10
This is the first time we see what others have described ….👇🏼
Minutes before 1/2 of Champlain Towers South collapsed, Surfside vacationers recorded this - water & debris coming down in the garage.
They didn’t understand why, & had no way to know.
@WPLGLocal10
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas parents running for Broward School Board are already game changers.
This is Vanessa👇🏼who tells me she became a US citizen after 20 yrs here, just to vote for
@rpetty
&
@lorialhadeff
@WPLGLocal10
⏩
We have so much more today on the (apparent) shill candidate that (apparently) skewed Florida Senate race D37.
Alex Rodriguez (who lied to us here👇🏼) has lied before, has an arrest record, doesn’t even live in the district, is mired in debt.
More -
@WPLGLocal10
6pm
Friends, we are beyond sad to share this news of a friend and colleague so full of life and love ... so smart, talented and fun..
This is one tough day ...
“Todd Tongen, beloved member of Local 10 family since 1989, dead at 56 “
Listen to Shabre Dansby, who said the increased police presence in Liberty Square is the only reason she’s outside with 3yo son Khalid today
@WPLGLocal10
#Miami
The Gov had said the Combating Public Disorder (aka anti-riot) Law passed to prevent the kind of violence that happened *elsewhere* during last year’s Black Lives Matter protests.
Yet here we are. And its 1st test are his supporters in Miami breaking it.
Our wrap
@WPLGLocal10
⏩
Shot to death this morning. A 3 year old girl.
*THIS* is the kind of gun violence we have been reporting about for my... whole... career. Where is the outrage? Will it get attention now??
@WPLGLocal10
#TWISF
🚨Breaking: North Miami Beach Mayor Anthony DeFillipo arrested … charges involve voting from an address where he did not live.
Developing …
@WPLGLocal10
Re- Miami Dade voters claiming voter IDs changed from Democrat to Republican without their knowledge: 3 requests for investigations -
@MayorDaniella
to the State Atty
@NikkiFriedFL
to the DOJ
& first, >our
@WPLGLocal10
report in Dec,
@Annette_Taddeo
to Florida Sec of State👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼
What’s going on here, besides the made-for-cameras Miami arrest of Chicken Man… ?
A thread🧵, with more questions than answers at the moment, & video courtesy of
@billycorben
@WPLGLocal10
1/
People! I am newly eligible today🙌🏼 and headed to Overtown.
I had this
#covid19
#vaccine
in my arm 12 minutes after I parked.
Thanks to everyone at the Overtown walk-up for being awesome!
@WPLGLocal10
#Miami
👀Just now
A Fort Lauderdale federal jury finds Miami City Commissioner Joe Carollo violated 1st Amendment rights of 2 city business owners, inc Bill Fuller of
@BallAndChainBar
Damages exceed $60 million ...
Developing
@WPLGLocal10
“It’s to call bullsh**t…”
Hours before the Florida permit-less carry bill heads to the Senate floor,
@senpizzo
plays chess & files an amendment to allow firearms into lawmakers meetings at the Capitol .
He said he’d considered an “open carry” amendment ▶️
@WPLGLocal10
Huh? What does “woke” have to do with Florida insurance?🤷🏻♀️
Patronis came up with this dis👇🏼when Farmers became the latest to stop writing policies..because of market risk.
(+ other co’s left FL, too)
(+ Farmers cut back in wokey California, so there’s that)
@WPLGLocal10
We did what it took to help stabilize Florida’s insurance market. If they pull out of the Florida market but are still embracing ESG and DEI, we’re going to call them out on it.
Personal Friday mission:
#2
vaccines - done!.. 🙌🏼
Beyond relieved, + grateful for their first lunch out in a year (my dad called it the best Chinese food he’s ever had😂)💕😷
#Florida
in the time of
#COVID
-19
Preview of our 6pm report
@WPLGLocal10
:
#Florida
senate candidates in
#Miami
Dade who did no campaigning, no fundraising - who have dark money connections.
Were they planted? to syphon votes from Democratic candidates?
A sample⏩
Here’s the moment the crowd at the Ron DeSantis election party learned networks are calling the race for his reelection (plus the Tampa ballroom pic is on the air)⏩️
@WPLGLocal10
Hello new Senator
@IleanaGarciaUSA
- I’ve left several phone messages, emailed, contacted your colleagues & your treasurer and also DM’d you here.
Any chance at a call back or conversation?
Many Thanks, Glenna
They said they would & today they did -
Equality Florida ++ files the first lawsuit against the newly-signed Parents Rights in Education law
(aka by opponents as Don’t Say Gay)
Read it
@WPLGLocal10
👉🏼
Univ of Florida in full backpedal mode, now giving “outside pay” as reason it barred 3 profs from being expert witnesses in a lawsuit vs new state voting law.
But that’s not the reason handed to professors👇🏼
+
@UF
medical hire is now also FL’s paid Surgeon General
@WPLGLocal10
Required reading:
@JaredEMoskowitz
‘s resignation letter to
@GovRonDeSantis
is a beautiful blueprint ....
“If only more people could put aside policy differences for the benefit of Americans we would be better off as a country...”
@WPLGLocal10
#Florida
Video just in ▶️
How North Miami Beach City Attorney Hans Ottinot responded to questions about his job on the line, & stalling that & all the other business of the city …
He ran out
(during a commission meeting again w/o a quorum)
@WPLGLocal10
NMB
2 /
There are about 50 migrants, some families, reportedly Venezuelan & Colombian, who entered US at the southern border. Their plane rides originated in San Antonio. So, unclear at this point how Florida became involved... working on that..
Security guards tell us “no recording”, but the streets around the Homestead shelter are public roads.
Note to HHS: we are mindful & respectful of young migrants’ privacy. But public has a right to document their situation & care ...
@WPLGLocal10
Florida
@GovRonDeSantis
spox confirms migrants on two planes that arrived in Martha’s Vineyard today are part of the state’s “relocation program” 👇🏼
@WPLGLocal10